Description: Shiden is a man with dangerous ambitions, a man who aims high through the world's lowest of the low. To this end, he needs the help of someone who won't think anything more than what's right in front of them. All Varvara wants is money and food, all she can grab with her grubby hands. Shiden knows for sure that with his hands - and maybe a bit of hers - he can grab so much more than just mere money and food.
It's been some time since Varvara's seen Shiden, at least in the flesh. Naturally he's kept in touch by phone... but even that's been dry, for a week or so, at least, if not longer. Shiden doubts that Varvara's really been all that concerned about it. It's not like she and Shiden are -friends-, after all. Colleagues at most. So maybe it's a surprise to get a message from Shiden, informing Varvara, in a pleasantly-enough worded message, that she is to meet him at the Shangai Sports Bar at 3:30pm.
When she arrives, she'll find that the bar is pretty well-packed... not -completely- crowded, but there's enough people to make sitting at the bar a dubious proposition at best. Fortunately for her, someone at the door recognizes her; waving to get her attention, he calls over the noise, "Varvara? This way, please," motioning towards a set of more private areas, where Shiden sits, toying with a glass of wine and with a spread of appetizers on the table.
All in all, aside from some the usual injuries that leave a lasting impression on one's appearance and all sorts of humiliations and bored rich people with too much money on their hands, life's been largely as all right as it can get for someone with little means to ever get ahead. She has some money, and El Fuerte's cooking is...
...
...it's very filling. That's really all she cares about in the long run. When you don't typically have the luxury to choose what you eat in most circumstances, 'delicious' tends to be a tertiary concern at best.
The phone call is more of an alarm for her than anything, having been sleeping in most of the day after a particularly rough night (not that any nights are ever /pleasant/ in Southtown if you're on the wrong end of the poverty line). Shanghai Sports Bar at 3:30 pm, huh.
Oh yeah, now she remembers, that was the place she picked out some rotten onion rings from the dumpsters nearby some time back. Why this would jog her memory more than the actual name, well, this is Varvara we're talking about. Today, at least she hasn't decided to try and mug anyone along the way. When waved at, she just follows along. She can smell food in there, and guess what - she's hungry!
There's Shiden right there with his wine... and take a look at that, he's got himself a spread of appetizers. Normal friends would start with 'hey, good to see you' or 'how are you doing?' Even casual acquaintances might make with the usual niceties in this fashion.
"Are you gonna eat those?" Varvara asks in something approaching earnest.
Shiden looks up. There's something different about him, to be sure, if Varvara's sensitive enough to notice it in some way. Something a touch more dangerous, though it isn't anything obvious. She might miss it entirely as he looks up at her for a moment, then gestures to the seat opposite him--a clear command to sit. But he doesn't respond to her eager question immediately, just picks up a nacho dripping with cheese sauce and jalapenos and pops it into mouth, chewing slowly. Doesn't look like he thinks much of the food, judging from his expression.
Chew, chew, swallow, chase it with wine.
"No. They're for you," he says, shortly. That said, he hunches forward, elbows resting on the table, wineglass poised between his fingertips as he gives Varvara an intense gaze. Again, he's silent, for another long set of moments--likely while she starts eating.
"I want a report on what you've been doing, Varvara. What have you been up to?" Of course he knows some of it, but he doeesn't know -all- of it...
If there is anything different - she already knows how dangerous Shiden is first-hand - it more or less goes unnoticed. Especially when there's so much food in front of her!
She devours an onion ring on the spot. It's fresh, it's warm, and it actually has something of a flavor to it! But... come to think of it, she thinks, she probably likes them better when they're cold. The way she just devours that single onion ring is wholly unladylike. Disgusting and entirely sloppy, it's as though these two people are complete opposites of one another. Shiden, cool and confident. Varvara, desperate and quick to put up a tough front to get her way.
She's about to stuff something else in her maw when Shiden wants to know what she's been up to. Something she waits to talk about until after she's swallowed the latest in this mushy, unhealthy mess of saturated fats, carbohydrates, and toxic preservatives.
"Fightin'." She starts. "Dealin' with rich people who got nothin' better to do than toss money watchin' people get messed up." There's something in her voice that suggests she's struggling to think of something that /isn't/ what her usual daily life is like, as that tends to be that to a tee.
"'n I met my teammates, some loud little girl and that one with the broom, uh. Naerose."
He watches her eat, expressionless. Hell, he knows what kind of appetite she had, and the lack of manners. So seeing her gorge herself doesn't bother him; in fact, he looks away from Varvara, getting the attention of a waitress, and just... indicates the menu. This is prearranged; she just nods, and heads into the kitchen. Naturally, the noise level increases as, with the fight showing on the TV screens goes into a more intense moment. Shiden ignores all of it.
"Ought to learn to take advantage of that. If they're willing to part with money, that's good for you. Just have to make sure that you're good enough to come out on top." He regards his teammate for a while, then speaks again. "I have been idle too long. Even with King of Fighters just around the corner... Varvara, I have plans that require your aid." He leans in, just a touch closer, and looks into her eyes for a moment.
"What do you know of the Triads?"
It's a conflicting thing. She needs the money. She needs it so much, but she hates where it comes from. She hates their faces, hates their fancy clothes, hates their fancy snacks... well, no, the snacks are great. It's a stress that comes when there's really only one thing, at all, she can ever do to get ahead. The way they still look down on you, flashing their pretty money - the lifeblood of existence - like it means absolutely nothing.
She pigs out while he lectures about the pragmatic truth of it being, overall, a good thing for her. She doesn't even care so much what this stuff tastes like collectively, when flavors mix and match in ways they should not. It's sustenance, and the more of it, the better.
She doesn't pay so much attention when he mentions having plans that require her aid - but when he leans in, something that seems almost an aggressive gesture, she looks up. Eyes meet. Many things can go on between a man and a woman when eyes meet.
She swallows her food, a very large lump. It's kind of a miracle she doesn't choke on the sheer volume of food that could have afforded some more chewing.
"Squat." She replies bluntly.
Shiden smiles, a smile that comes within a mile of actually reaching his eyes. "I can see how much you hate the rich, Varvara. It burns in your eyes. I'm not telling you to like them... I'm telling you to be good enough to -fleece- them." That he, likely, would qualify as one of 'the rich' hardly escapes his notice, but he isn't really flaunting it the way 'the rich' do.
But, back to business. "You're familiar, of course, with organized crime." That isn't even a question. Shiden -knows-. They went over this a little, after all, when they first met. "The Triad are a... set of organizations that I work for, occasionally. I intend to..." He considers his words for a moment, then nods.
"I intend to take a place in their organization." The use of the word take is -not- coincidental. "Here in Southtown resides one of their most senior members. A man of such experience and power that the number of people who could challenge him, one on one, numbers in the dozens. It's my intention to find him. I want you to come with me."
It's not too hard to read Varvara. She is, on the whole, an incredibly simple person. Just about the perfect pawn for any sort of underhanded dealings. If she didn't have a name, there'd be nobody better.
Shiden's still got her eyes locked on him. One of her hands feels around the plate for something else. Something, anything, she didn't already just eat the whole thing, did she - ah, there! She stuffs a particularly messy quesadilla into her hungry maw as Shiden talks about organized crime and her particularly nasty brush with it.
It's not exactly a misty-eyed memory.
She chews along as he goes along the lecture of what it is and how it relates to her - something about one of their very most senior members, huh. At first she thinks 'am I supposed to beat him up' - this is all she can really do, even as he highlights the scope of his strength. Only mere dozens of people in the world could hope to stand to him in one-on-one combat.
She is very much assuredly not a part of these 'dozens' described.
She swallows at mention of coming with him - not out of nervousness, just so she can speak up about it even as her hand is reaching out for more disgusting base commoner grub.
"Yeah?" The tone doesn't indicate any interest or disinterest from that matter, it is her way of saying 'I'm still here and listening' (and, a bit more bluntly, 'the food has almost my entire attention though').
He doesn't expect Varvara to be particularly sentimental. She lives on the street, for the most part, she eats garbage, literally. And if Varvara isn't one of them, well, hell. Shiden isn't either, and he knows it. But confronting the master of the Genhanten is -not- his intent. Sensing a touch of discomfort, he sits back in his chair, releasing some of that tension, regarding his erstwhile teammate.
"Yeah," he parrots, with -almost- the same inflection. His next words are frank and, a lot more complimentary than he may have intended them to be. "You have the potential, Varvara, to be much more than you are now. You're motivated by the simplest of drives and desires..." Which, as Shiden well knows, makes her an easy target for manipulation. "... once those are no longer blocking your way, you can begin to discover your true potential. And I wish to help you find that."
Varvara sweeps up a buffalo wing with some really gooey, disgusting sauce on it and proceeds to bite down on it - past the bone, even, is no match for her teeth. (How her teeth have such strength, when it can be presumed she almost never has a chance to brush them... if she's even aware of the concept?)
Shiden goes on about her potential, to be much more than she is now, like... what? She can't comprehend what he means on the onset. She's ugly, she's accepted that years ago. She's strong, she's fine with that. It's all she is, it's all she can do to get ahead. She can't even comprehend what he means by her being 'much more' than she is now.
"Girl's gotta eat." She speaks up in the middle of his lecture with her mouth half-full of sauce, bread crumbs, meat, and shattered bone fragments, to quiet down when he continues about how they're 'no longer blocking your (her) way.'
She blinks once, as though it were a man trying to have an in-depth conversation with a faithful pet that sadly could not return such dialogue, but nonetheless continues to show appreciation for the attention anyway - where attention in this equation means food.
"Whaddaya mean?" She asks after she swallows the latest mess.
"Everyone has to eat," confirms Shiden. To prove the point, as the waitress comes by with another load of food, he snags a plateful of freshly-fried potato chips, chewing on a few himself. "I can see you don't understand what I'm talking about. I'll simplify it for now, then, until you're ready for the rest of it. Varvara, if you stick with me I'll ensure that you have enough money to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. That you can buy whatever you want to buy--food, clothing, a lease on a man's life, whatever. I know you have the capability to do what I will require you to do."
Saying too much again, maybe; Shiden sits back, scooping up a few more chips. "More to the point--I want you to help me out with... an assignment." There's a faintly challenging look in his eyes as he regards her, saying, without speaking the words, 'if you think you're up for it.' Given what he just said--it's likely it involves something not-entirely-legal...
Some people never dream much higher than what they have. Some cannot comprehend it - in a way, this is what truly separates the leaders from the followers, the strong from the weak, the visionaries that tomorrow remembers as opposed to the nameless masses whom pass away and fade into obscurity as their loved ones, too, pass away in time.
To uplift the simple, sometimes, all it takes is to be able to break it down into terms they can hopefully understand. Something they won't have to chew on for long to get the idea of. (It doesn't take long for Varvara to chew through some more gooey cheesy things where the breaded parts seem more a formality for what lies inside.)
If she sticks with him, he'll ensure she has enough money to eat whatever she wants, whenever she wants. To buy whatever she wants to buy... food, clothing, a lease on a man's life, whatever... she's immediately thinking 'newer cellphone.'
"Tell me." She says with her mouth full right as he finishes saying 'an assignment.' Legality really doesn't matter so much. She's a hobo, she's a complete lowlife, what good is her adhering to the law when she's all but incapable of anything but the most basic, dirtiest work nobody wants to do?
She swallows the latest in food that has been sacrificed to the void that is whatever lies beyond Varvara's maw, speaking out her next words a lot more clearly. "I'll do it. Tell me."
Shiden smirks a little. It's only because she doesn't yet realize how easily he is manipulating her, just after -telling- her how easy she is to manipulate. But it's one of those things--once she understands it she'll probably look back at it in disgust. He did the same thing, when he realized how easily -he- was duped and manipulated... by those who he thought loved him. That's a different subject.
"It's a job involving a delivery of goods for a Triad gang." He looks around. "I can't give you more details than that, not here, and I don't have them yet myself. But you still have the phone." He smirks--he knows how much she's been using, and enjoying, that phone. And it's been useful, to be sure. Very useful.
"We'll be traveling with the package to Metro City, and ensuring its security there. Simple job." Right... simple. "I'll give you further details via phone." Rising, Shiden glances down at the food, then shrugs. "If you want, stay and eat more. It's all paid for." Sliding his hands into his pockets, he walks away from the table, slipping through the crowd with ease.
If she could only pick up the subtle nuances of that smirk - or that simple little fact that just wasn't simple enough for her to truly understand, as she is indeed guided so very heavily by her wants and needs.
Which seems to, at the moment, begin and end with anything and everything on the table. One might suspect that even the utensils themselves were at risk, given the wide definition of things she considers edible.
"Uh huh." She doesn't weigh the dangers of delivering goods for a Triad gang, she's pretty fixated on what's right in front of her as she stuffs almost the entire row of cheese sticks into her gaping maw. How much has she already eaten, anyway?
The phone, huh? She nods along while she lets her completely base palate guide the rest of her movements. Find food, grab food, stuff in mouth, chew, swallow, repeat ad infinitum. It can only be assumed at some point she might actually grow full.
"Simple, huh," she mumbles underneath the cover of food. Simple is good, especially if she's being paid so very well for it.
Her eyes light up at mention of eating more. She doesn't need to say 'yes' or 'I will' because she's already doing it! There's not even any sort of polite goodbyes for the ambitious man out along his way, because you just don't turn it down.
Free food! It puts her in a better mood considering the previous days.
Log created on 16:14:36 01/15/2011 by Varvara, and last modified on 20:09:55 01/15/2011.